Description
The Great Galactic Treasure Hunt follows a number of individuals who for some reason or the other didn’t make it in the densely populated, highly civilised worlds of the big states; often consisting of a large number of inhabited planets with many billions of citizen on each world. There, life is safe and orderly, well-regulated, tidy and highly controlled. The vast majority of individuals of all described species lives on such worlds; and they like their life there. Yet, some just don’t fit in or feel that they don’t and some just can’t make it there. These take to the free areas of the galaxy, here anyone with the will to succeed can make it and find happiness; or the premature violent end, death by accident or predators, illness or starvation. Anyone can go there and be lucky to quench the thrust for freedom, success, and gold, or die by the plain old thirst of water. The Great Galactic Treasure Hunt begins with a few such adventurers who are on their way to new exploits, trying to test the limits of their luck again. Soon, some of them come together to better pursue their common interest with mutual support and travel together through the dangerous expanse of outer space. Over time, others join them and together they have to face severe dangers and hostile conditions. But even those who make it to reach their legendary destination still haven’t made it yet, because a last persil has to be overcome.

Summary
The Great Galactic Treasure Hunt plays in a distant future. Humanity and some other species have mastered hyperspace flight. They are now roaming all over the galaxy in their respective pursuit of happiness. There are highly advances, sophisticated, well-developed technical civilisations spreading along the major hyperspace travel routes. They are forming big states with many inhabited planets combining to powerful entities and alliances. Then, there are the so-called free areas of the galaxy, accessible through narrow rat-run paths traversing the superposed dimension. Big spaceships cannot reach those regions and thus they remain the preserve of adventurers. Those adventurers belong to different races and have mainly in common that they love their freedom, don’t get along very well in overly civilised places, and travel with small vessels called hoppers, seating one or two individuals and some supplies at max. The story follows a number of adventurers on their way across the galaxy to a location where legend has it that an enormous treasure rests there, covered and hidden for ages and left behind by an ancient nation.

Excerpt
When the gigantic trans-galactic cargo ship Ostia entered the hyperspace Arcus Stream, it was high noon local time right under it on a planet named Vato Lehibe. She had left the stationary orbit around Vato Lehibe early in the morning. Vato Lehibe was a booming mining planet. Its rock was of a deep red colour and contained high concentrations of aluminium and other metals. As the resources’ deposits began just under the surface, scrap mining was possible and profitable.
The Arcus Stream was a kind of swift canal through hyperspace that allowed very fast travel, even for hyperspace terms. Outside the strong wall of the huge spaceship, wavelike trails of misty appearance rushed by. Actually, it was the Ostia that rushed through pas them. She was not only one of the biggest spaceships ever built but also one of the fastest. The Ostia carried passengers, good, and even other, smaller spaceships. Going at a rate of eighty to hundred light years per hour under good to optimal conditions, the Ostia was several times faster than the smaller spaceships she carried as cargo in her huge belly.
Sometime in the afternoon, the Ostia was scheduled to reach Louis Homes, an equally booming mining and plantation settlement along the Arcus Stream. Louis Homes was home to both mining and also farming business. They grew lots of plants that had been genetically engineered to precisely fit the needs of the final customers. The plants were also designed to withstand whatever conditions the planet they were grown on was subjecting them to.
On Louis Homes, a planet that got its name from a gentleman called Louis; people grew wood that was almost as strong as steel and lots of eatables serving as foodstuff the other mining planets further up the Arcus Stream. Not every planet was suitable for farming and growing food in greenhouses was much more costly than transporting it. At Louis Homes, the Ostia was due to collect some more passengers and goods.
The Arcus Stream allowed the gigantic spaceship travelling but that came at a price. In hyperspace, there was a phenomenon that was called the energy tide. Explaining it in easy words was something that hyperspace physicists failed to perform and truly understanding it was something that anyone found beyond comprehension. Its effects were quite simple and straightforward, though. When the heat wave of the energy tide was coming along, it got hot and when the cold wave came through, it got cold. The Arcus Stream was seemingly beloved by heat tides; it attracted them almost magically.
The heat of the energy tide combined with the excess heat from the huge spaceships engines to forma climate not quite convenient for human being. The heat seeped from everywhere. From the cold fusion reactors to the hyperspace drive itself, from the artificial gravitation to the electro-magnetic field deflection shields that attempted to keep high-speed ions from the ship, anything produced excess heat. No matter how close the engineers managed to get efficiency to unattainable hundred percent, some percentage of excess heat always remained. When the total amount of the energy throughput was big enough, even a small percentage meant huge absolute numbers. With the hyperspace heat tide at full swing, the cooling was not sufficient to create a convenient atmosphere on board the huge space transporter.
The Ostia had cabins of different size for those who could pay for them and then different classes of common passenger areas. Many people travelled in the cargo bays along their possessions, though. The Ostia had several cargo bays with the major ones being large enough to carry along even mid-size spaceships. Because it was cheaper, people would travel in the cargo bays, too. The containers and goods that went along as cargo were secured and fixed safely and the passengers roamed around between them as they pleased. There were barrels huge and small, boxes of many different sized and shapes, standard containers and lots of other cargo and the passengers were all in between and all around. Most of the human freight was busy trying to cope with the heat by trying to be as un-busy as possible. Many were just lying around.
In the middle isle of the major cargo bay of the huge spaceship Ostia, a makeshift bar had been set up. On the one side of the makeshift bar, a bartender had to endure the heat. On the other side of the bar, a group of about twenty men was hanging around. They were playing dices. The bartender was oozing not only sweat but also displeasure and resentment, whenever nobody directly looked at him. He would have very much preferred to have a rest. Why could not a robot do this job?
The men of that dice-playing group must have known each other from earlier on, as they called each other at first name and seemed to be quite familiar with the respective situation of the others, as they frequent jokes and banter and teasing gave evidence. There was one man among them whom the crowd treated with respect. That man was addressed with the rank of colonel by them. This man was tall and thin. He was clean-shaven, had sharp and pointed features and fiery red hair. The man wore silk trousers and a silk shirt. He had taken off his silk jacket because of the heat. Silk was a good material for clothes when the wearer is exposed to excessively warm temperatures. It wasn’t cheap, either. The fellow did not mind, though, to lay flat on the floor with his silken attire. He did not behave as if it had meant much to him paying for it. That was slightly odd because the better-off folks usually travelled in cabins and not in the cargo bay.
The Ostia left hyperspace again and approach the planet named Louis Homes. The huge ship would not land there. It was far too big for save and secure landing. The Ostia would remain in orbit and dock to a space station. There, the passengers and good that were to come along, too, were already waiting.
Among the passengers entering the spaceship Ostia was one tall, broad, very muscular fellow. He wore a well-used work suite made of tough material. His hair was full and of a very dark brown; like the fertile mud of a good field. The tall, muscular man made his way to the main cargo bay. He wanted to save on the fare and he was accustomed to living without much comfort. The absence of massive disturbances often meant sufficient comfort to him. Travelling in the main cargo bay of the Ostia was the cheapest possibility to get quickly through hyperspace. For that man, it fulfilled the purposes.
When the huge fellow with the dark brown hair finally reached the cargo main cargo bay and slowly walked along the middle isle, between all the stuff that was being transported, he looked around as if he was scanning and securing his environment. His gait was steady, but calm and in no way hurried. He carried a rough bag that obviously had been used for long and in rough environments. His eyes were very good and even from far he saw that there was a makeshift bar in the middle isle. The man wasn’t out for a drink but he was mildly curious as he saw a crown of people there. So he approached slowly. When he came close, he suddenly realised that he recognised the appearance of one of those fellows hanging around near the bar. He did not like what he saw. His eyes immediately turned away and he stopped going further. He just went a little to the side, as if he had found the very one place that suited him best for resting. There, the put his bag to the ground and sat down, too, leaning with his back against the tightly packed bag.
The red-haired man had seen the newcomer, too, and he likewise did not seem to appreciate what he saw. He, too, tried not to show it, though. The man who was called by the title of colonel bent to one of his comrades and whispered: Don’t look around conspicuously. Don’t show that I told you. But the fellow who just came and now is resting over there looks familiar. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, though. I should want to find out what the chap is all about, why he’s around here.’
There was no opportunity in sight for such enquiries, though. What came were instead some more new passengers. They also chose to travel on the cheapest ticket available; or they could not afford otherwise. Whatever the reason, their choice led them to the main cargo deck. Two red Varanoides from planet Squamata Palus had joined the colourful lot travelling among the cargo. Squamata Palus was a planet soaked in red. The rocks were red, the soil was red; and the sun shining at it was red, too. Therefore, the natural colour of the Varanoides was red. Other species sometimes called the Varanoides Red Scales; a pejorative term that was better not used toward them. At least that was what people claimed who had been witness so what may happen if somebody did. The Varanoides could reach almost three meters of height and well above two hundred kilogram of muscular, lean mass, though the two samples on board the Ostia were much smaller, not even reaching two meters. The heaviest ever heard of Varanoide was a fat free individual of two hundred kilogram. The Varanoides were basically ectotherm beings with a certain span of poikilothermic sustainability. They could live within a certain range of environmental and body temperatures. Apart from that, their scales, and their colour, they had eyes resembling those of cats and very strong hands and feet with claws. The extremities were extremely muscular and rather short. Their faces were fairly flat and showed practically no facial expression; they could not show much because of their structure. With Varanoides, the sign of imminent danger was when they bared their teeth and that happened only an instance before they’d bite into somebody else carotid artery or similarly sensitive area. Usually, they preferred to use their claws, though, to finish their opponent. That came with less risk to the own head, eyes and all included.
Another passenger had just arrived, too. He came last of the new crown and walked quite slowly. That fellow was a human of tremendous size, even a good deal bigger than the tall dark brown-haired man in the worker suit. This newcomer had blue eyes; blue like the clear sky. His hair was dense of the fairly pale blond that comes from intensive exposure to sun and sea. His skin was deeply tanned, gleaming in a bronze kind of brown. His symmetric features were strong yet delicate. He walked along the isle between the cargos toward the bar. When he had come close enough to see what kind of people were handing around near the bar, he took a right angle turn and sat down on the ground, leaning with his back against his backpack. Then he changed his mind and law down flat on the ground.
Out of hyperspace and therefore out of the influence of the energy tide, the Ostia cooled down. This was just a short respite, though. Soon, the big spaceship went back to hyperspace and it started getting hot again. It was the kind of heat that was induces by hyperspace itself in any form of aggregate matter. There was no escape from it. One could just endure it.
After some time, the two Varanoides approached the bar. Their unhasty movements showed both the attempt to avoid warming up further and the desire to be un-noticed at best. They were apparently shy. When they had reached the bar, kind of trying to sneak through the crowd of rough and tough-looking men hanging around there, the bigger one of the two Varanoides addressed the bartender. ‘Alcohol bottle two price minimum’ the Varanoide hissed. Their different respiratory tracts made it somewhat difficult for Varanoides to speak human languages. The second problem then came from human language grammar, which was strange to the Varanoides.
Anyway, the bartender guessed that the Varanoide wanted to have two bottles of the cheapest alcohol available. He slowly turned round and reached for them. The cheap stuff was put at the most distant place where customers would see it last.
In that moment, the fellow whom the other men hanging around near the bar called colonel intervened. ‘Why be content with the cheapest stuff?’ he asked. ‘I’ll treat you folks for the best on offer!’ he insisted and gave orders to the bartender to hand over two bottles of the best liquor available to the Varanoides. The bartender did as asked for. The one Varanoide took them both and handed over one of the bottles to the other one. Then, the aliens opened the bottles and poured the content over their heads. The alcohol ran from their heads over their bodies and soaked them. With alcohol evaporating at lover temperatures than water, at 351.65 degree Kelvin, instead of 373.15 degree Kelvin for water, it was an effective coolant. As the Varanoides could not sweat because their scaled skin had no sweat glands, pouring liquid over themselves was a rational choice. Using alcohol instead of water for that purpose was perspicuous and getting it from the bar was self-evident, as the bar was close by. That this strange human had insisted on treating them for the most expensive stuff was inscrutable to the Varanoides but they were too courteous and shy to object. So, they had taken what they had been offered and used in in their way.
The fellow who was being called colonel by his mates apparently could not follow all that Varanoide logic. He could not even be bothered with trying. He did not ask what and why but immediately turned mad in anger. He started shouting a few words at the Varanoides, who stood motionless and in bewilderment. Then, with his madness reaching boiling point, something in itself not advisable, but certainly no great idea on a spaceship experiencing a hyperspace energy tide heat wave and faced with two Varanoides, the colonel struck out at them. One of the Varanoides managed to avoid the punch by ducking down but the other alien got a blow. It was the bigger one of the two Varanoides who had received the punch but he did not strike back. For a moment, it looked as if the smaller of the aliens wanted to rip the colonel in stripes as his the claws of the Varanoide’s paws flashed. On a glance of the bigger one, the smaller alien returned to calm immediately. The fellow called colonel by his comrades was also appeased; by the help of those very same rough and tough folks he was travelling with. Fighting with Varanoides was anyway no decent past time; certainly not in such temperatures and without decent arms.
The aliens, not understanding fully what had happened but with their instinct telling them to better create some distance between themselves and those strange-behaving humans, slowly moved backward. Those two Varanoides were not very familiar with humans. They could see that humans were sweating, though. Thus, the two Varanoides assumed that the humans were drinking the alcohol to sweat it out for the purpose of cooling. Themselves being not able to sweat, it was self-evident to them that anyone used the available means of maintaining a bearable body temperature by his own means, appropriate to his own body structure. So the aliens did not understand why humans would chose anything else but the cheapest alcohol nor did they comprehend why the other fellow had insisted on treating them to it and his reaction following their actions remained entirely alien to the Varanoides. But then, it wasn’t worth fighting on this spaceship either. Later, some other time may come more appropriate to settle scores.
The fellow called colonel, though, was not that patient. He was still red of anger at the red Varanoides who had wasted his expensive two bottles of alcohol. He had wanted to invite them to a drink and they had wasted it, ostentatiously pouring it over their heads. Such an insult! Such a waste of a fine drink! Just to show that his friendliness and generosity meant nothing to them. How could they dare to insult him that much; and in front of his men? That’s what the fellow called colonel thought. And being a man not only of thought but also of action, he decided to do something about this insult; do it right now and right here. The alcohol he had drunken till now had not served to cool his body and certainly it had not cooled his temper. He took an empty bottle and threw if at the retreating Varanoides. The bottle was thrown strongly and it flew fast and far, missing its target but hitting one of the containers, where it crashed against the steel with a cracking sound, braking in many pieces.
An instance later, a terrible, frightening roar emerged from inside that very same container. It was very loud and it was very strong, hinting to something being inside that container that was huge and dangerous. With four exceptions, everybody on that cargo deck cringed. The four noticeable exceptions were the two Varanoides, and the two tall fellows, the one with brown hair and brown eyes and the other blonde one with the sky-blue eyes. Those four had realised the roar but did not jerk at it. They were not fearful beings and they had enough control over themselves to avoid such involuntary reactions to surprise. None of the four had known that there was a mighty beast in that container but all of them possessed the self-composure to remain calm even in times of danger. With the beast well locked in a steel container, they were had certainly not entered any times of danger, though.
Who had experienced a tremendous fit of fright, though, was the fellow whom the other rough-and-tough looking guys addressed as colonel. Given the high military rank attributed to him, it might have been natural to assume he could maintain his calm better, but obviously not only his temper was on the hotter side but his susceptibility to fear and surprise formed a pronounced feature of his character, too.